Seaweed (22 page)

“You go first,” I said.

“I’d rather we go in together.”

“I’d rather not.”

We were stalemated. All was silent, except for the thundering sound of the beat of my heart.

Then a knock at the door.

“Ky!” I whispered. I knew it. We’d been caught trespassing.

“It’s okay. Just act like this we belong here.” He moved to the door. “I’ll get rid of them.”

He opened the door, but the knocker wasn’t into pleasantries. He kicked it wide open with his foot.

I screeched, “Tor!” What was
he
doing here?

Tor stepped into the space between me and Ky. “Get outside, Dori.”

“What’s going on, Tor? What’s the matter with you?”

“Ky is Lars. He wants to take you to Prince Mol.”

What? My brain couldn’t compute. Ky was on land. I’d thought Lars couldn’t get on land.

Before I had a chance to ask any more questions, Ky stormed into Tor, thrusting them both outside. They broke apart, each staring the other down like gunmen in an old western.

“We’re on to you, Ky. You failed. Just go peacefully.”

Ky shook his head. “I haven’t failed yet.” He pounced on Tor, grabbed him by the torso and flung him into the sky. Tor’s body arched and landed with a thud in the hard sand, at least twenty feet away.

How’d Ky do that? His strength was inhuman. Of course, he
was
inhuman. But so was Tor. A fall like that would have seriously injured a regular guy, but it only stunned him for a couple seconds. Tor lifted himself up and brushed the sand off.

He yelled, “Run, Dori!”

Run where? Where could I go that either one of them couldn’t find me. They both had extra-ordinary senses of smell, sight and intuition. I knew how mine had sharpened since becoming merfolk and I was half human. They were both fully merfolk.

Tor and Ky faced off like two wild animals. I realized now how much Ky had actually held back when Colby rushed him. Ky could’ve easily killed him without much effort, and I was suddenly overcome with the panic that follows an awareness of what could’ve happened.

Ky came in swinging his right fist, but Tor ducked it, then ducked it again. He punched Ky in the gut, a move that threw Ky backward ten feet.

They were hardly breathing heavy. I, on the other hand was hyperventilating on the verge of nervous breakdown.

Tor stepped up to Ky, who rolled away quickly on the ground, then sprung to his feet.

“She’s mine, Tor. I will have her for my prince.”

Oooh, creepy fear paralyzed me. I should’ve run when I had the chance.

“Not if I have anything to do about it.”

Tor rushed Ky, grabbed his arm and started swinging him over his head. How was that possible? I’d never witnessed so much strength before. I was awed and dumbfounded.

Tor tossed him like a discus; Ky flew through the air, a shout escaping his lips. He landed in the ocean, sinking out of sight.

Tor reached for my hand. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Ky would have a tail by now, and I knew from experience that getting legs took more time than Ky would be willing to part with, not to mention he’d have to find a place more private than this.

“But, I don’t get it,” I said as we jogged away. “How is he Lars? He has legs.”

“I’ll explain it to you later.”

We ran toward the dirt bike lying on the ground. I recognized it as Colby’s. “You stole Colby’s bike?”

“I didn’t steal it. He lent it to me. I told him you were in trouble with Ky.”

We didn’t have helmets. Seemed today was a day of total recklessness. I held onto Tor’s waist as he revved the bike and threw it into gear.

The wind filled my ears. My long hair blew behind me like a banner. I think I was in shock. I’d just witnessed the most amazing superhuman fight. Over me. I was with Tor again after a long summer of longing for him, holding onto his chest, my face pressed into his back.

I didn’t know how it was possible, but Ky was Lars. He came to Eastcove to trick me into getting into the ocean, so he could give me to Prince Mol.

He very nearly succeeded.

I thought I might be sick.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

We were losing daylight. I wanted to go home, but I didn’t know if I’d be safe there. Tor must’ve had a destination in mind, as he kept us on a trail heading south.

Eventually he cut the engine. “We have to walk from here.”

Walk where?

Tor tucked Colby’s bike behind a bush, effectively concealing it. “Where are we going?”

“Just come with me.” Tor headed toward the shoreline, pausing long enough to make sure I followed him. What else could I do at this point? Besides, now that we were together again, I wasn’t in a big hurry to leave him. At least not without my questions answered.

The sun had disappeared down the western horizon a while ago and the residual sunlight faded into a deepening gray. Soon it would be dark.

When we reached the water’s edge I could make out an object on the craggy beach. A rowboat.

“How did that get there?” I said.

“Uncle Dex arranged it.”

“Where is he now?”

“He had to go back.”

Before I had a chance to ask why, Tor was helping me in to the boat. He pushed it into the bay, hopping in before getting his feet wet.

He took the paddles and began rowing.

The sliver-thin moon high in the sky didn’t shed much light, and after awhile a mass of clouds blocked even that.

The quiet and calm and seclusion of darkness settled my nerves. I felt like I could breathe again.

Tor watched me but didn’t say anything, just rowed, the soft slap of the oars on the water surface creating a sense of time and space. We were moving, but I didn’t know where to.

“Thank you,” I said, finally. The weight of what had happened settled firmly in my chest, and the thought of how close I had been to being captured for Prince Mol made me shiver.

Tor simply said, “You’re welcome.”

I didn’t know what else to say. Our voices echoed over the water, and I instinctively knew it was imperative that we remain silent, especially since we were passing the West Quoddy lighthouse. Its distinctive red and white horizontal stripes flashed with each blast of light, which meant we’d just crossed into waters belonging to the United States of America off the coast of Maine.

Dex had thought ahead to store bottled water on the boat along with a small cooler with food.

I couldn’t stomach anything to eat at the moment, but I was grateful for water to drink and finished an entire bottle.

I blew out a heavy breath. My family. They were probably freaking by now, with me not coming home by nightfall. They were going to go crazy with worry again and I felt terrible.

After awhile Tor brought us to shore.

“Quoddy Head State Park?”

He muttered, “Yes.”

Quoddy Head was big enough and solitary enough, especially at this time of year, to hide a couple runaways. Tor surprised me when he pulled a pup tent out of a bag I hadn’t even seen it tucked away in the rowboat.

“We’re spending the night here?”

Tor nodded, but abandoned tent building temporarily to build a fire.

I still couldn’t believe I was alone with Tor, much less even deal with the idea of spending the night here with him. I snapped out of my state of shock enough to assist with the fire by gathering dried twigs and broken bits of fallen logs.

The cooler contained fish, cod mostly. I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Cooked?” Tor asked.

“If you don’t mind.” Raw fish didn’t have the same appeal when I was in my human form.

Tor cleaned a branch with a jack knife, also stored in the boat, and speared a filet with it. He crouched while holding it over the fire. I was mesmerized by the glow of the fire light on his face, the intensity and determination of his expression as the shadows flickered across it.

It reminded me of the bonfire where we first met, and how I’d caught a glimpse of his face on the other side of the flames. And how that night, when he’d dived in to the ocean and I’d thought that he’d drowned, had changed everything.

“I can do that,” I said.

Tor handed the branch with my meal speared onto it to me. His palm brushed across my hand and I froze. He did, too, and when our eyes met I thought he might bend down and kiss me. My heart rocketed into my throat.

But he pulled back, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

Why? Was it Shava? Was he with her again?

Tor ate his fish raw. I flipped my meal over to be licked by the flames when one side was done. The aroma of it cooking set my hunger alight. I satisfied myself, picking the cooked flesh off the stick with my fingers.

Tor stared at me the whole time. He didn’t even try to hide it. I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to know.

“How’s Shava?”

If Tor was surprised by my question, he didn’t show it.

“She’s fine.”

Fine? What did that mean?

“Okay, let me spell it out. Are you and Shava back together?”

A beat. Tor leaned forward slightly. “No.”

No? Really? So, how did that make me feel? He’d left me back in July and didn’t come again until I was in danger. He still didn’t want
me
. He just didn’t want Prince Mol to have me, a decision I was in full agreement with.

“How can Ky be Lars? He obviously can come ashore.”

“His father is Rai. His mother raised him Lars, but genetically, he took after his father. When Ky’s mother died, he searched for his father among the Rai, but his father wouldn’t acknowledge him. Mating between the clans is forbidden, and he refused to admit that he had violated the law.

“Ky happened to be at the age of choosing. With his Rai genes, he was an anomaly among the Lars. He realigned himself with them, and Prince Mol demanded that he go to shore, as a test to see if he could. Unfortunately, it worked.”

“So couldn’t Ky perpetuate the Rai quality among the Lars clan?”

Tor shrugged. “His offspring would be only quarter Rai. We don’t know. But Prince Mol’s ego wouldn’t let Ky have the distinction of fathering a new clan of land-dwellers, when there’s a possibility that he could do it.

“As a subject of the prince’s, Ky would never trespass Mol by trying. Not unless Prince Mol’s efforts fail and he was personally ordered to by the prince.

“Either way, Ky is the first Lars able to work for them out of the sea. Because of this, he’s very, very dangerous.”

“But I thought Shava had a parent from each clan.”

“Yes, but this is not a well-known fact. Her mother is my aunt, the queen’s sister. My aunt was a rebel, some say unstable. She flirted with the other side, and Shava was a result. No one knows who her father is.”

“This unfortunate circumstance never kept you from loving Shava?”

“No, it’s not her fault who her parents are. She’s still my cousin.”

Right.

Now that my stomach was full and my burning questions answered, my primal need perked up. The ocean seemed to tease me with the slapping of the waves up against the rocks, spraying mist into the air. I could smell it. I wanted it.

“Take me swimming, Tor.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Please, just a short swim. It’s been so long.”

“It’s not safe.”

“How so? No one knows we’re here.
I
barely know where we are. It’s dark. The satellites can’t even see us. Please, Tor? Imagine if you hadn’t been in the ocean for two months.” I didn’t add that he was the reason for my aquatic exile, but he knew that already.

Quiet. He was thinking. Hope spurred me on. “Remember the fireworks?”

“How could I forget?”

The fire before us snapped. Something else was snapping, too, an energy and desire that both Tor and I shared.

“I missed you,” he said.

“But you left me.”

“It was a sacrifice.”

“Who asked you to make it?”

“No one.”

“Then I can hardly feel sorry for you.”

His jaw tightened. I’d hurt him, but he’d hurt me. We hurt each other.

“You do remember what you have to go through when you come out?”

I did, but I couldn’t think about that right now. I just shrugged.

Tor stood up. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Yes! I couldn’t believe it was finally happening. I rushed to my feet. Blood pounding, I felt light headed.

“Dori?”

“I’m ready.”

“I’ll go first.”

I turned as Tor removed his clothes and waited until I heard a faint splash. I threw off my jeans and jacket, hardly concerned about my modesty in this darkness and ran into the ocean. I felt giddy like a little girl.